GROWTH OF YELLOW PASSION FRUIT GRAFTED ON SWEET PASSION FRUIT IN DIFFERENT PLANTING SPACING

The objective of this work was to evaluate the vegetative growth of yellow passion fruit grafted on sweet passion fruit, in different plant spacing, in area with description of premature death of plants. The experiment was carried out in Adamantina, SP, Brazil, from April 2008 to June 2009, adopting the randomized experimental design, with six treatments and four replications. The treatments were different planting spacing: T1, 1,0 m (3.125 plants/ha); T2, 1,5 m (2.083 plants/ha); T3, 2,0 m (1.563 plants/ha); T4, 3,0 m (1.042 plants/ha); T5, 4,0 m (781 plants/ha) and T6, 5,0 m (625 plants/ha). The distance between the lines was 3,2 m for all the treatments. The variables evaluated were: rootstocks and grafts stem diameter, internode length, secondary branches length and tertiary branches number. Planting density did not favor the growth of the rootstocks plants.